China & World Economy  / 73–92, Vol. 24,  No. 4, 2016

China, the G20 and the International

Investment Regime

Karl P. Sauvant*

 Abstract

China has become a major home country for outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) flows. As a result, the country is increasingly concerned with protecting its OFDI and facilitating the operations of its firms investing abroad and creating a strong universal international investment law and policy regime. This article briefly reviews the emergence of China as an outward investor. It continues with an analysis of some policy issues related to the rise of FDI from emerging markets. A brief discussion of issues central to the future of the international investment law and policy regime follows, before focusing on several outcomes that could be pursued under China’s G20 leadership: non-binding shared principles that could outline the architecture of a universal framework on international investment; an international support program for sustainable investment facilitation; and the creation of an additional intergovernmental platform that would allow for a continued systematic intergovernmental process to discuss the range of issues related to the governance of international investment, preferably paralleled by an informal, inclusive and result-oriented consensus-building process that takes place outside intergovernmental settings.

Key words: China, foreign direct investment, G20, international investment regime, multinational enterprises

JEL codes: F21, F23